Have you ever thought about how much space in human life is allotted to music? Most solemn moments, both joyful and sad, go to harmonious sounds. People listen to music all the time: at home, on the road, during work, and relaxing when they feel bad or vice versa. And for centuries, the piano has been considered one of the wonderful sources of sound. But what is this instrument, and how to tune a piano?
History reference
At the end of the XVII century, great composers and musicians began to look for a new keyboard instrument, which in terms of tenderness of sound and breadth of emotions would not be inferior to the violin and organ. I wanted to have a deep sound, the bark could flow smoothly from thunderous fortissimo to light pianissimo.
The first name of the piano was literally transmitted as “a keyboard instrument that plays softly and loudly”. He named the instrument Bartolomeo Cristofori - the Italian master of musical instruments in 1709. The music emanating from the tuned piano does not become obsolete to this day, affecting the deepest strings of the soul.
Who should tune
Like any instrument, over time, the piano changes in sound. It depends on many factors, and you won’t be able to avoid tuning.
All virtuosos of their craft strongly recommend that you do not configure the instrument yourself. There is no room for error in this process, and each movement must be expertly honed. Moreover, only the owner of perfect musical ear can cope with this work.
Some may customize their instrument on their own. But it is worthwhile to understand that this work is rather complicated and painstaking. Moreover, if you neglect caution, you can break the strings and cause irreparable harm to the instrument.
A curious fact: to violate the integrity of the string, it is enough to drag it just one octave.
Instruments
Those who are interested in how to tune the piano cannot help but realize that this requires special tools. What exactly is required?
- Rubber wedge or plug.
- Electronic tuner.
- Tuning key.
- An additional light source.
These items can be bought at specialized stores. You need to be aware that the cost of these tools is directly proportional to their quality, and therefore they cannot be cheap.
By the way, if you compare how much it costs to tune the piano - on your own or call the master - the difference will be subtle. Why? Because, in addition to the keys, it is important to purchase special books for tuning the piano. Just watching a video on the Internet is not enough for a good piano tuning.
Beginning of work
It should be understood that your further perception of sound depends on the quality of the setting. If the setting is not in accordance with generally accepted standards for sounding tonalities, you can forget about a professional game and good ear for music.
So how to set up the piano correctly? It should be in an empty room. It is better to close the door to this room so that no extraneous sounds interfere. The master needs to concentrate as much as possible and relax his shoulders, since it is not recommended to use force during tuning. All movements should be soft and smooth.
Piano tuning begins with a diagnosis. The first to explore the keyboard. To do this, attach a ruler to it and check the evenness of the keys in both planes.
You need to try to shake every key for looseness. This should be done at the base and at the edge. They should sit tight enough, but the general course should not be infringed.
Each key is held on two pins: front and middle. The height of the whites is regulated by the washers near the middle pin, and the depth of depression is regulated by the front washers. Depth of keystroke should be 10 millimeters.
Need to check the pilot. The quality of his work can be checked by pressing the dark key. There should not be any backlash. When tapping it, the hammer should not move.
Damper
Dampers are visible at the top. They should fit snugly against the strings. Any mixes are strictly contraindicated. By pressing the right pedal, you can check whether they are simultaneously detached from the strings. And slowly pressing the key will indicate the clarity of the work - halfway to the string, the damper should break away from it.
Hammers
These small slats should work well too. They must fire as soon as the pianist’s hand touches the instrument. The distance between the hammers and strings should be 45 millimeters. Moreover, if there are strips on the hammers, this part of the tool should never be left behind. It must be polished as efficiently as possible. Everything should be smooth.
The breakdown point of the malleus should be two millimeters. Usually, if the piano stood for a long time without tuning, this distance decently increases.
Tuning the piano
If before you set up the piano yourself, you carefully diagnosed it, the tuning itself will go simply and smoothly. Obviously, the height of the keys can be adjusted with the washers mentioned above. But how to adjust the tension of strings, mallets, dampers?
The tuning of the instrument begins with the note “la” of the first octave. In it, one hammer should strike one or three strings. Two strings are clamped with a rubber wrench, and the third is pulled on the corresponding spike. You need to gently twist it with a key until the tuner shows that you have reached the desired tension. This action should go slowly, especially when tuning an old tool.
How to tune the piano further? By the same principle, but clamping not two strings, but one. It turns out that the two will be free, and their sound should be the same. To do this, again, you need to twist the tunes of the tunable string to the sign from the tuner.
With the third string, the tuning is the same. Only with it you do not need to clamp anything with wedges. We adjust slowly but persistently. So one octave is tuned. The entire tuning process goes by alternating quarts and fifths.
About working with the tuner
Of course, the tuner is a convenient gadget for tuning any instrument, but there are two “buts”:
- Errors with too low and too high sound.
- There is no tuner more precisely than human hearing.
Therefore, if you decide: “I’ll tune the piano myself!”, Think about how perfect your hearing is. It is better to consult with a specialist.
rules
Knowledge of how to tune the piano at home can be summarized in a set of simple rules:
- Do not rush, but also do not sleep during the setup. Accuracy does not depend on speed.
- It is imperative to eliminate mechanical defects.
- The torsion of the pegs should be smooth, with minimal movements.
- The string should be stretched for 1-2 beats in one second and with the mandatory fixation of the split only on the bottom wall of the castle.
- Trust the technique (tuner), but check by ear.
These five rules must be kept in mind when setting up the fifth-octave type. All work is done without the use of physical force. The entire tool must be professional, replacing it with similar ones is prohibited.
If the quarto-octave tuning path is selected, it is not enough to know how to tune the piano yourself. It is necessary to tune from the "la" of the first octave to the "mi" of the second, and from it to the "mi" of the first and so on. This is much easier, but often more inaccurate.
Intonation and other important little things
Intonation is the work associated with compacting hammers, or more precisely, felt on them. To do this, intonation needles are used, with which the felt is smoothly mixed to the center, weakening or compressing it. This is necessary, since some hammers are used much more often than others, and the felt on them simply wears out or shifts.
The hammer pusher, or spiller, also often needs either repair or adjustment. It has a spring in it that loves to fall out of the loop and, even worse, cling to neighboring elements.
It is strongly discouraged to tear strings, as they are very expensive, and replacement takes a long time and is difficult.
findings
Piano tuners are a kind of musical instrument doctors. One of their "operations" lasts about two hours and requires maximum concentration. If you want to try yourself in their place, be prepared that the “patient”, roughly speaking, “will fall into a coma” and will stay in it until the arrival of a more experienced “doctor”.